7.5/10

For 20 years, Deftones have been nipping at the edges of mainstream hard rock and metal, even winning a Grammy along the way.

While the band’s latest album, Gore, probably won’t get them much closer to mainstream radio — it would, but for the laws of a dying industry … — it offers a nuanced take on their heavy sound and new avenues for the band to explore. Namely, simmering songs built on reverbed, plucky guitars that crescendo in satisfying and sometimes surprising ways.

Gore opens with “Prayers/Triangles,” one of a handful of these kinds of tracks. It reaches an eviscerating chorus over Chino Moreno’s tortured howls, but remains something beautiful.

That’s the trick that makes Gore intriguing, even when the band falls to into their familiar thrash patterns. Through the menace, there’s melody and vulnerability: a sense that the whole thing could fall apart any second.

“Hearts/Wires” feels like a real risk: built almost entirely on a burbling bass line and a gently strummed, start-stop riff reminiscent of The Cure and mid-period Siouxsie and the Banshees. It begins in a haze, almost mournfully, before Moreno’s almost whispered “nothing can save me now” ushers in the gothic gloom. There’s real drama here, and it feels effortless.

Highlights are sprinkled throughout, but particularly concentrated on the back half: “Xenon”‘s memorable chorus and resolve, the shoegazey, Catherine Wheel-channeling (L)MIRL, the title track’s exceptional tension and release.

The best thing here is “Phantom Bride,” where everything gels. It’s another slow-churning, reverbed ballad where everything clicks. The melody is close to perfection, and Moreno’s vocal delivery (featuring gentle falsetto that turns to a wail) matches it expertly. It also features ex-Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell on a show-stopping guitar solo. Even at 4:53, it ends too soon and leaves you wanting more of the dark magic Deftones judiciously conjure.